TV NotesSeeking to Escape From His ImageAdrien Brody Prepares 'Houdini' Mini-Series
By Brooks Barnes, The New York Times - Aug. 22, 2013

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — It’s not because the guy needs an acting coach. He can be mesmerizing on screen and has an Oscar to prove it. His work ethic is most definitely not the reason. He starved himself for one part, gained 25 pounds for another and has gone to other extremes — wetting his pants, for instance — when a role has required it.

He has a reputation in Hollywood as loyal and affable. Women seem to find him sexy, at least judging by the knockouts he dates.

So why has Adrien Brody’s studio career been in such a lull? Despite appearing in smaller films like Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel” and landing the title role in the History Channel’s coming “Houdini” mini-series, Mr. Brody, 41, has only been in one major studio film in the last nine years: “Predators,” a science-fiction movie from 20th Century Fox.

“I think that perhaps I have confused people with my approach to work,” Mr. Brody said. “There are people who make a career in Hollywood by being a type. They earn more money. They have more opportunities. But I don’t think actors should restrict themselves that way.”

In an alternate universe — one where Hollywood lets men with character-actor faces play romantic leads, and studios make casting decisions based on talent and not foreign box-office algorithms — Mr. Brody would most likely be able to play any part he wanted. But this is reality, darn it, and instead of wallowing in frustration, Mr. Brody seems to have decided to roll with the punches.

“I’d love to be doing movies with scope and scale, but as much as I do think studios appreciate me as an actor, they are not coming directly to me,” he said, speaking from a nook at the Sunset Marquis Hotel here. “I can’t wait for the tide. I have to swim.”

He sure is working a lot. Mr. Brody has six independent films in various states of completion, including “The Septembers of Shiraz,” a movie about an affluent Jewish family caught in Iran’s Islamic Revolution that has “awards run” written all over it. (Producers hope to introduce it at either the Cannes or Berlin film festival next year.) A few months ago, Mr. Brody formed his own production company, which has $50 million in funding from a Nigerian energy magnate, Kola Aluko, and an anonymous Chinese investor; it aims to make movies with significant box-office prospects, sometimes in partnership with studios.

“The goal is to develop the material that I crave that doesn’t necessarily come to me,” Mr. Brody said of his new company, Fable House. “The projects will all have me in a pivotal role, whether directing, producing or being a protagonist in the film. China is a particular focus. I’m big in China for some reason. It’s kind of weird.”

And he is taking a calculated risk with “Houdini,” which the History Channel will run for two nights starting Sept. 1. The mini-series tells the entire Harry Houdini tale, from his unsuccessful start as a carnival magician to global celebrity as an escape artist to his later years wrestling with the spiritualism movement. Kristen Connolly, known for playing a congressional staffer on “House of Cards,” appears as Houdini’s wife, Bess.

“Adrien is definitely somebody who fully immerses himself in a role,” said Dirk Hoogstra, the History Channel’s general manager. “We had to make sure that he didn’t immerse himself too far, like locking himself up under water.”

When Mr. Brody pushed his agents to bring him a big role that would be widely seen, television was not exactly what he had in mind. He had worked continuously in film since his teenage years, winning best actor at 29 for his Nazi-tormented musician in “The Pianist.” But his representatives argued that TV was a valuable opportunity. In success, “Houdini” could put Mr. Brody’s acting talents in front of more than 15 million viewers and tap Hollywood on the shoulder: This guy can anchor a major project.

Other Oscar-caliber performers were also doing television, Mr. Brody’s agents noted. Glenn Close, a six-time Oscar nominee, did it with “Damages.” Kevin Costner, a two-time Oscar winner for “Dances With Wolves,” starred in the History Channel’s successful “Hatfields & McCoys.” And Halle Berry, with whom Mr. Brody will always be linked, given the surprise lip lock he planted on her when he claimed his trophy at the 2003 Academy Awards, had just signed up to do the CBS mini-series “Extant.”

Lackluster ratings could hurt, of course. (Just ask Ms. Berry, whose “Extant” ended up flopping.) Poor reviews were also a worry, albeit a more minor one.

In the end, Mr. Brody — true to form — could not resist the chance to dig into a complex, tormented character. Harry Houdini had long been one of Mr. Brody’s favorite figures, dating back to his boyhood in New York City, when he put on magic shows in Queens as “the Amazing Adrien.” He went to magic camp, performed at children’s birthday parties and practiced on editors at The Village Voice, where his mother, Sylvia Plachy, was a photographer.

“I idolized Houdini as a kid,” Mr. Brody said, breaking into a crooked grin. “He was the original action hero.” (Obscure fact: Mr. Brody played a kidnapper named Harry Houdini in “Oxygen,” a little-seen crime thriller from 1999.)

When Mr. Brody rolled up to the Sunset Marquis with hat hair and an oh-so-healthy green juice drink, I did not know what to expect. A new member of his professional coterie, a smart young Rogers & Cowan publicist, had said he was eager to talk candidly about his career. But celebrities tend to have a different definition of candid than reporters. Some older interviews and profiles were also troubling, painting Mr. Brody as a bit of a crank. Then there was the castle.

In 2007, as a birthday surprise to a Spanish actress named Elsa Pataky, then his girlfriend, Mr. Brody bought a castle-esque house in central New York. They then made the regrettable decision to show it off in a tacky 35-page Hello! magazine spread.

And what about the hip-hop? Mr. Brody also likes to work on hip-hop beats in his spare time. He is a friend of RZA, the rap impresario behind the Wu-Tang Clan. “You an ill cat,” P. Diddy once told Mr. Brody after listening to his music.

It was all a bit hard to square. Until Mr. Brody arrived.

The man who strode into the Sunset Marquis this month was funny, warm, sensitive and a bit manic, which he said was a symptom of jet lag. He had just flown in from the Gobi Desert, where he had been filming fight scenes for “Dragon Blade,” a $65 million movie that co-stars Jackie Chan. (“Jackie gave me bruises,” Mr. Brody said, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt to offer evidence. “It was kind of awesome.”)

Three days before arriving in China, he had been in Bulgaria filming an especially harrowing “Septembers of Shiraz” scene; the script called for his character to lose control of his bladder while facing a firing squad. (“They gave me an apparatus to fake it, but I said, ‘No, I will do it.’ ”)

Mr. Brody was certainly ready to talk. And talk. At one point, I wondered if I had stumbled upon That Guy You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party. But no. Mr. Brody, it became clear, simply has more emotion than he knows what to do with. While a lot of actors are rather one dimensional off screen, he is refreshingly the opposite. His broad interests (he also likes fast cars, sometimes participating in celebrity races) make it hard to squeeze his personality into a prefabricated narrative, a specialty of the celebrity news media. Suddenly, the career frustration is entirely understandable: Hollywood wants to keep Mr. Brody in the serious box, but he keeps banging on the walls and insisting he is more than that — and he is right.

“Many people have commented or criticized or been curious or confused about some of my movie choice,” he said. “I don’t understand that. The concept of something being an odd choice is odd to me.”

Mr. Brody was definitely candid. Did it mess with his head to win an Oscar at 29? “It was beautiful but also frightening,” he said. “It made me really afraid, on a lot of levels. I even stayed in a relationship that clearly didn’t work, because I was afraid that nobody would ever again love me for me.”

He has long wanted to act in commercial movies. After “The Pianist,” his former agents helped him land films that seemed like awfully good bets on paper, including “King Kong,” directed by Peter Jackson, who had just completed the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But Mr. Brody was unlucky. The over-budget and overlong “King Kong” took in $672 million worldwide in 2005, after adjusting for inflation, but Hollywood deemed it a bloated misfire.

In the last five years, Mr. Brody has appeared in 12 movies. Two went straight to DVD. Five took in less than $1 million each at the global box office, including “High School,” a stoner comedy in which he played a drug dealer named Psycho Ed. One was downright terrible: “InAPPropriate Comedy,” which found him cavorting in pink hot pants as a giant gay stereotype; the movie got a zero on the RottenTomatoes.com review scale.

“That was an experiment that was never supposed to be released,” he said. “I’m embarrassed by it.” One recent highlight was Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” Most of the other bright spots have come in Wes Anderson films — “The Darjeeling Limited,” “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Mr. Brody voiced the field mouse) and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which took in more than $171 million worldwide. Mr. Anderson said in an email that he first noticed Mr. Brody in Steven Soderbergh’s 1993 drama “The King of the Hill.”

“He made an immediate impression,” Mr. Anderson said. “He was great in this role, gentle and heroic. And there was this wonderful face we had never seen before, and one of the great voices, too.” Mr. Anderson said he considers Mr. Brody “family.”

Regardless of whether “Houdini” is a hit, Mr. Brody said he is proud of the work he did in the mini-series. He does have one quibble, though. The History Channel decided to disclose the secret methods Houdini used to escape. “I acquiesced because it’s all available online,” he said. “But a magician never reveals his tricks.”

With that, Mr. Brody put on his sunglasses and said his goodbyes, walking out of the hotel and down the street. To where, it wasn’t quite clear.

For the television industry, the 66th Emmy Awards on Monday night is the culmination of an extreme game of musical chairs. More shows than ever competed for the limited number of nomination slots, the result of a ballyhooed boom in original programming. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences says 108 drama series were submitted for competition this year, up from 77 five years ago. There were 86 comedy series submitted, up from 52 five years ago.

That has led some networks to get more inventive with their submission strategies, both to secure a nomination and boost their chances of a win. That jockeying, combined with the Academy's often Byzantine eligibility rules, has resulted in some matchups that could mystify Emmy viewers.

And speaking of head-scratchers, why is the Emmys telecast on a Monday after 38 years of airing on Sundays? NBC needed to avoid scheduling conflicts with its Sunday preseason football games.

Below, some of the categories that have caused confusion among Emmy observers.

Drama series

In a field of established competitors, including "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "Downton Abbey," "Game of Thrones," and "House of Cards," HBO's new "True Detective" is a different animal. The crime saga features big movie stars whose roles, and the show's story line, ended with the last episode of the season. But that description also fits FX's "Fargo," which happens to be nominated as a miniseries (with 10 episodes, two more than "True Detective").

That's led to some grumbling in the industry that "True Detective" landed in the wrong category, and that HBO is leveraging the show's star power to boost its odds of winning a more prestigious prize.

The TV Academy has said its criteria hinge on accepted industry standards, including who has the credit for creating the show. But that still leaves some strategic wiggle room for submitters. HBO declined to comment, but at a media event last month President of Programming Michael Lombardo defended "True Detective" as a drama series: "This is a continuing show…we're going to sell it to consumers every year. Same title, same creative auspices."

Defining the series as a drama brings some risks, namely fierce competition. Though "Breaking Bad" already won last year, many Emmy observers expect voters to reward the show with a final victory for its triumphant five-season run.

Miniseries

This category is a microcosm of the evolving TV landscape. Once it was the domain of grand TV epics such as "Roots" (winner, 1977) and "War and Remembrance" (1989). After that bubble burst, the Academy lumped the category with made-for-TV movies. This year, with the miniseries back in fashion, its category was restored to stand-alone status.

Nominees include "Fargo," and sister FX series "American Horror Story: Coven." Both shows are part of a genre that didn't exist a few years ago: the "anthology series." Though united by title, style and theme, each season of an anthology series begins with a new cast and plot. Theoretically, that keeps things fresh for the audience. On a more practical level, the one-and-done model helps producers cast movie stars who don't want to get locked into multi-season contracts.

The other nominees are "Bonnie & Clyde," (Lifetime) "Luther" (BBC America), "The White Queen" (Starz), and—further muddying the waters—"Treme" (HBO). That New Orleans narrative spanned four seasons, but the last one only consisted of five episodes, not enough to qualify as a drama series.

Comedy series

With genres bleeding into each other everywhere, even the half-hour comedy isn't sacrosanct. An Emmy category long synonymous with sitcoms has been infiltrated by an hour-long show on Netflix, "Orange Is the New Black," set in a women's prison. In one of the episodes submitted, from season one, there are as many poignant moments (a transgender inmate struggling to procure estrogen shots) as outright laughs (inmates hunting a mythical chicken on the prison grounds).

Netflix fielded the series as a drama for some previous awards, such as the Golden Globes, without much luck. After much internal debate, the company changed tactics, though series creator Jenji Kohan had mixed feelings about the comedy category (where her last show, "Weeds," languished), says someone familiar with the matter.

The show's big ensemble cast allowed Netflix to flood the zone, submitting 10 actors for consideration, compared with seven actors from its drama "House of Cards." The gambit paid off with 12 nominations for "Orange," more than any other comedy.

The show is competing against "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS), "Louie" (FX), "Modern Family," (ABC)"Silicon Valley" (HBO) and "Veep," (HBO), in the only major category recently dominated by broadcast networks. "Modern Family" has won the last four years in a row.

Lead actor in a comedy series

In the season-four finale of "Shameless," the character played by William H. Macy goes to the edge of frozen Lake Michigan to hit a bottle—his recent liver transplant be damned—and scream defiantly at his creator. The episode earned Mr. Macy a nomination in a category that also includes sitcom star Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") and "Friends" alumnus Matt LeBlanc, ("Episodes").

"Shameless," about a dysfunctional and resilient Chicago family, was submitted as a comedy after three years of coming up short in the drama races. Executive producer John Wells never fully embraced Showtime's decision to field the show as a drama. He says he sent a "lengthy essay" to the Academy making the case for the switch, arguing that most "Shameless" writers come from sitcom backgrounds, and that the show defaults to black humor despite its many sobering moments. As Frank Gallagher, Mr. Macy is an exuberant substance abuser. "His performance exists on this edge where if you played it a few degrees to the other side, Frank would be a tragic and pathetic figure. But this is a guy who believes he's having a great time in life," Mr. Wells says.

TV Review‘Intruders,’ eerie at a measured paceBBC America drama eases into its story, tying threads as it goes
By Brooks Barnes, The New York Times - Aug. 22, 2013

Occasionally, when watching a drama, we find ourselves wondering if we would have any idea what was supposed to be going on if we hadn’t read about it or seen promos for it beforehand. Readers who are interested in seeing if that’s the case with BBC America’s new eight-part series “Intruders” should stop reading now.

Premiering this Saturday, Aug. 23, at 10 p.m., the series initially appears to be about people in the Pacific Northwest who begin behaving oddly while a hit man goes around trying to kill people. According to the press materials — so this is not technically a spoiler — it’s about a secret society that pursues immortality by taking over other people’s bodies.

But even if viewers are a little mystified for the first couple of episodes, they should still enjoy the show for its spooky atmosphere and odd flashes of humor. The creators seem to enjoying themselves doling out the mystery slowly and not simply withholding details because the big reveal is going to be anticlimactic.

The series centers on two missing persons. The first, Amy Whelan (Mira Sorvino), a Seattle lawyer, first shows signs that something is wrong when she suddenly develops a taste for old-fashioned jazz and wakes up one morning speaking a foreign language.

Then she disappears while supposedly on business in the city. Her husband, Jack (John Simm), an ex-cop, uncovers some fishy activity while looking for her, but for some reason he doesn’t call the authorities.

Meanwhile, 9-year-old Maddie O’Donnell (Millie Brown) runs away from home after a stranger (James Frain) shows her a sand dollar. The stranger, whose name we later learn is Richard Shepherd, has already murdered the wife and son of Bill Anderson, a professor of acoustics.

A conspiracy-minded podcaster named Oz Turner says that those murders were intended to cover up the activities of a secret group called Qui Reverti. Coincidentally — or is it a coincidence? — an old friend of Jack’s, Gary Fischer (Tory Kittles), has told Jack that he’s working on a case involving Anderson.

By the end of the three episodes provided for review, we’re pretty sure these varied plot strands are heading somewhere. It seems that the conspirators may be the sort who don’t conspire very well with others. But we’re also enjoying ourselves in the meantime.

Maddie, who may or may not be possessed by a much older spirit, is often funny as she has to deal with the obtuse adults she encounters. For once, typical child-actor precociousness works for the part.

The director of the first three episodes, Eduardo Sanchez, one of the writer-directors of “The Blair Witch Project,” delights in setting up eerie tableaus and ominous close-ups of eyeballs or blown-out birthday candles. The Pacific Northwest has never looked gloomier.

Sanchez gets good performances from most of his actors, although James Frian, perhaps trying to sound naturalistic, often sounds as if he were trying to remember his lines or were making them up on the spot. This is particularly deadening in a long, elliptical scene in which Amy tries to tell Jack that she has to leave him, even though she’s not really leaving him.

But the script, adapted by Glen Morgan from the novel “The Intruders,” by Michael Marshall Smith, otherwise proceeds at a good clip.

Too many recent supernatural thrillers on TV have tried to give the impression that either the world or the viewer’s worldview is in the balance. “Intruders” just wants to creep us out entertainingly, and it is likely to succeed.

This eight-episode limited series (episode four aired Aug. 21) arguably is the best show on television at the moment -- a riveting, complicated, timely espionage thriller about Israel, Palestine and the conflict's ties to the U.S. and Britain. Star Maggie Gyllenhaal is exceptional, and the writing and directing are top tier. It's kind of stunning that more people aren't talking about it. Now's your chance to change that.

Once WGN stepped into the scripted game with Salem, it didn't look back, and its second effort is surprisingly accomplished. Viewers might wonder if they even get the channel, which would explain why Manhattan's first season (episode five airs Aug. 24) is under the radar. But the story of America's rush to build the first atomic bomb, and the scientists who moved to the New Mexico desert to do so, is sharply written, acted and directed.

Here's one on which you'll have to play catch-up as this unique horror series starring Eva Green and Josh Hartnett wrapped its first eight-episode season June 29. A blend of influences from mainstays of the genre (Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, various vampires, etc.), the show, created by John Logan, was far more intriguing and sophisticated than expected -- and has more gravitas than bigger-buzz horror series like The Strain.

Available on Showtime Anytime

Rectify, SundanceTV

Here's a perfect example of how massive critical acclaim can't always get the world to watch. The first season of Rectify, which emerged as a poster series for Slow TV, was a revelation -- the incredible tale of a man on death row for murdering his teenage girlfriend, his subsequent release and his slow return to civilization. The second season (the final episode aired Aug. 21) has generated dramatically less water-cooler chatter, though the quality hasn't diminished in the slightest.

The Divide, WE tv
This, perhaps, has been summer's biggest surprise. WE tv's first original scripted series (the eight-episode season's finale airs Aug. 27), from screenwriter Richard LaGravenese and Tony Goldwyn, is a Philadelphia-set drama about a high-profile murder case that saw an innocent man executed 11 years after the fact. But it goes deeper than that and features shockingly good performances by Marin Ireland, Damon Gupton and Paul Schneider.

Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two of the most familiar Sunday morning guests, will be back this weekend.

But the guest list also includes actor Gary Sinise, spokesman for the Disabled Veterans' Life Memorial Foundation.

Sinise talks to CBS' "Face the Nation" at 10:30 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. Other guests are Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Ryan will be promoting his book "The Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea." One panel features former CIA deputy director Mike Morell, CBS' Bob Orr and CBS' Margaret Brennan. Another panel brings together David Rohde of Reuters, Nia-Malika Henderson of The Washington Post and Susan Page of USA Today.

Sen. Rand Paul gives an exclusive to "Meet the Press" at 9 a.m. on WESH-Channel 2. Chris Jansing accompanied Paul to Guatemala on a medical mission to perform eye surgery. One topic is Hillary Clinton. "If you wanna see a transformational election, let the Democrats put forward a war hawk like Hillary Clinton, and you'll see a transformation like you've never seen," Paul says. Other guests are Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.; Gov. Jay Nixon, D-Mo.; and the Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC. A panel on ISIS features Peter Westmacott, British ambassador to the United States; NBC's Richard Engel; and Helene Cooper of The New York Times. A political roundtable brings together Gwen Ifill of "PBS NewsHour," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and David Ignatius and Michael Gerson of The Washington Post.

Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., visits "Fox News Sunday" at 10 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. Other guests are Gen. Jack Keane (ret.), a Fox News military analyst; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and Dr. Ben Carson, author of "One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future." The panel will be Juan Williams, Karl Rove, Bob Woodward of The Washington Post and radio host Laura Ingraham. The program salutes Bao Bao, the National Zoo's panda, as a power player.

Sen. Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., talk to CNN's "State of the Union" at 9 a.m. and noon. Gov. Jay Nixon, D-Mo., is another guest. A panel on police and community relations brings together Thomas Manger, chief of police in Montgomery County, Md. and vice president of Police Executive Research Forum; Malik Aziz, deputy chief of police in Dallas and chair of the National Black Police Association; and James Craig, chief of police in Detroit.

Rep. Darryl Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, are guests on "Sunday Morning Futures" at 10 a.m. on Fox News Channel. Another guest is Angela Stent, Georgetown professor and author of "The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century." The panel will be journalist Judith Miller; Tony Sayegh, president of Talk Radio News Service; and Hank Smith, CIO of Haverford Trust.

Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and the NSA, will talk to "Fareed Zakaria GPS" at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on CNN. Other guests are CNN's Peter Bergen, author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden," and Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security. Jim Sciutto will host the program, but Zakaria is scheduled to offer commentary on ISIS and the Middle East.

Although MTV years ago abandoned music videos for reality shows, its annual Video Music Awards remains a barometer of mainstream pop. This year, Beyoncé leads the field with eight nominations, followed by Eminem and Iggy Azalea with seven each. The show, now in its 30th year, will be broadcast from the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Sunday at 9 p.m. and will feature performances by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. Spontaneous moments in the show have often upstaged the videos. Remember Kanye West interrupting Ms. Swift in 2009 or Miley Cyrus gyrating on Robin Thicke last year? But the five nominees for video of the year (four feature women) each have moments that subtly reveal the musicians’ larger artistic identities.

IGGY AZALEA (FEATURING CHARLI XCX) “Fancy”

This clip for the breakthrough single by this Australian rapper recreates several scenes from the 1995 teen comedy “Clueless,” including one in which Ms. Azalea wears a red party dress like that made famous by the movie’s heroine, Cher Horowitz. She recreates the scene without parody or fresh insight, a fitting visual for an artist who has been roundly criticized for appropriating American rap culture without meaningfully contributing to it. As a side note, the scene in the movie featured the song “Rollin’ With My Homies,” by Coolio.

MILEY CYRUS “Wrecking Ball”

The moment in the video when Ms. Cyrus first writhed naked atop a wrecking ball was a proclamation of unapologetic glee in her bawdy, new pop persona. The same day she released the single, she danced a provocative duet with Mr. Thicke at the 2013 music awards, a performance that left many viewers wincing.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS “Happy”

“Happy” follows Mr. Williams as he and friends shimmy around Los Angeles; at one point, he struts down a red carpet in an empty ballroom, wearing a bow tie and a tan Mountie hat — a preview of the headgear that he later wore at the Academy Awards. That hat began a thousand memes and reintroduced him as a benevolent, playful figure of modern R&B-pop.

BEYONCÉ (FEATURING JAY Z) “Drunk in Love”

The sultry video for “Drunk in Love” finds Beyoncé and Jay Z on a beach (her in diaphanous layers; him wearing an ostentatious amount of chains). She grins at him as he says, “Know I sling Clint Eastwood/Hope you can handle this curve,” a moment intended as an instinctive, loving reaction that could be read differently in light of the tabloid gossip swirling around the media-savvy couple.

SIA “Chandelier”

The singer-songwriter Sia Furler pairs her searing electropop ballad with a performance by the 11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler who twitched and pirouetted in joyously exaggerated positions. No moment captured Sia’s irreverence better than when Maddie wrapped herself in window curtains and pulled her eyelid upward, pantomiming mania in a way that could have been farcical and ugly but was instead endearing.

TRUE BLOOD
HBO, 9:00 p.m.
SERIES FINALE: This is it: the end of the road for the True Blood story, and all its characters. I’ve liked how the producers have started to wrap things up and give certain characters their last moment in the sun. Which reminds me: With all these sudden suicidal mood swings by ailing vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), who has refused to drink the blood that could heal him, I can’t help wondering why, if he’s embracing the idea of the “true death,” he’s letting himself be consumed by the vampire-eradicating virus. Why doesn't he just walk outside one morning – and have his own final, fatal moment in the sun?

MTV MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS
MTV, 9:00 p.m. ET
This year’s VMAs will have no shortage of scene-stealing diva moments – the opening number alone features Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande and Jessie J teaming up for a live rendition of their new collaboration, “Bang Bang.” Taylor Swift also will take the stage tonight, and Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora will team up, and Miley Cyrus will be featured prominently as an audience member. But the night will, or should, belong to Beyoncé, who receives the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, and is set to perform to cap the tribute. The awards themselves, of course, mean next to nothing, especially since finding videos on MTV is like finding tofu at a pulled-pork cook-off. But for the record, the most inventive video of the year, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” gyrations notwithstanding, was “Chandelier” by Sia, who doesn’t even appear in her own video. Instead, she’s represented by Maddie Ziegler, an 11-year-old dancer from the Dance Moms reality series who spends the video dancing around in a Sia-like white wig, and interpreting the song in a series of dance moves that are innovative and athletic without stooping to being at all provocative.

THE STRAIN
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
Right after True Blood ends tonight, you can flip from HBO to FX and compare the cable vampire drama of today to the one of tomorrow – because The Strain, indeed, represents the next generation. It may not be bloodier, and it’s certainly not sexier, but it sure is scarier.

MANHATTAN
WGN America, 10:00 p.m.
One show not to forget about tonight: This WGN America drama, which gets more intense and interesting every week as the show’s clock is ticking, like a bomb timer, while the scientists in this show battle internally to produce the best design for an atomic bomb.

LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER
HBO, 11:10 p.m. ET
Another show not to forget about tonight: Oliver’s show will conclude its summer run next month – and he’s really carved out his own territory and solidified his singularly intriguing approach. While most comic performers and writers adopt the “Less is more” attitude, going for a fast one-liner or two and moving to the next topic, Oliver has gone the less traveled “More is more” route – and probes his selected story of the week from so many angles, he provides viewers not only with many, many opportunities to laugh, but opportunities to learn as well. And he’s getting rewarded for his superb efforts: Last week, his 15-minute piece on the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO, was the second most viewed late-night video clip of the week on the Internet.

"I feel like cable is the one company that punishes loyalty," said Holt, 33, of Pleasant Ridge. "With every cable company, my bill continues to go up the longer I am a customer. Anywhere else, be it Kroger or at hotels or with airlines, I'm rewarded the longer I stay a customer."

So when Holt and his wife, Genevieve, moved into a new house two years ago, they didn't bring DirecTV and its $100 monthly bill with them. Instead, they joined the estimated 7.6 million U.S. households that have left pay television behind.

The number of pay-TV defectors is steadily rising: About 6.5 percent of households nationwide have cut the cord, up slightly from 4.5 percent in 2010, according to research by Experian Marketing Services. (Yes, the label is a slight misnomer, as most "cord cutters" do still deal with some actual cords.) Nearly one-fifth of Americans who have working Netflix or Hulu Plus accounts don't subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.

Michael Greeson, co-founder and director of research for the Diffusion Group, has been tracking cord-cutting trends since 2007. For the past several years, his surveys have consistently shown that about 15 percent of adult broadband users who subscribe to a pay-TV service are considering ditching it within the next six months.

That more people aren't jumping ship is likely thanks to cable operators' aggressively working to keep subscribers when they call to cancel. They're offering quiet deals that their websites don't advertise in hopes of at least converting a would-be cord cutter into what's called a "cord shaver" – someone who scales down his or her service but doesn't bail on cable entirely.

"If it were not for operators' jumping on this and the economy coming back, those numbers could be a lot larger now," Greeson said. "With cord cutting, we're not headed toward a mass exodus."

Still, a prediction Greeson made in 2012 is on track to prove true: The number of U.S. broadband subscribers is poised to exceed the number of pay-TV subscribers by mid-2015. Meanwhile, the number of Netflix subscribers is growing, having passed the 50-million mark last month.

"We're seeing a greater number of consumers finding content that they care about through online services," said Mark Ely, CEO of Simple.TV, one of the products that's emerged for cord cutters to watch and record free channels such as NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and PBS.

Jumping aboard the trend isn't necessarily easy. As cord cutters have gained in numbers, more and more products have been introduced to fill holes left by cable's absence and to accommodate new services that have sprouted.

All the products can get overwhelming, said Brittany Walker, 29, who lives in Crescent Springs. She and her husband, Chris, ditched cable two years ago – well, mostly. Every spring, they sign back up just long enough to watch HBO's "Game of Thrones" as it airs. After the finale, they quit again.

"My husband's read all of those books. There's no way he's going to wait a year" for the season to appear on Netflix, Walker said. They still watch the show over a streaming device rather than through their cable box, she added. The couple has Chromecast by Google, as well as both Roku and Apple TV.

"Don't get overwhelmed by all the boxes," Walker advised. "Know that you have options, but try not to get overwhelmed by them."

Then there's the cord cutter's biggest obstacle: sports. Chris Knight, 45, of Greenhills ditched cable and tried to fill his need for Reds games by subscribing to MLB.TV for $25 a month. Problem was, home-team games were blacked out for exclusivity reasons, so Knight returned to cable.

David Caddell, 28, of Milford, had a similar struggle with NFL games. Instead of re-subscribing to cable, he scoured online forums such as Reddit until he found a suitable workaround that he said is legal but would likely be frowned upon by NFL bigwigs.

Holt, who's cut in half his monthly TV-related expenses since ditching his dish, usually hits a bar or a friend's house to watch football and said the inconvenience is worth the tradeoff. He and his wife now watch TV "more intentionally," he said, and channel surf much less.

"We spend more nights in our living room reading and listening to music than we do watching television," he said. "I probably enjoy my evenings more."

As for people considering making the cut, Holt said it isn't for everyone.

"If you're happy with your service and think you're getting a fair price, good for you. Stay," he said. "But if you're like we were and have 200 channels when you're only maybe watching five, it's actually really easy to switch. You don't have to be super technical and IT-minded to get it to work."

Your New TV Guide

Easily the most difficult part of making the transition from cable subscriber to cord cutter is deciding which products and services you need. Here's a rundown of some of the most popular among cord cutters. Note: The Enquirer wasn't paid to mention any of these.

Over-the-Air antennas

One of the most common misconceptions about cutting the cord is the mistaken belief that you'll lose basic channels such as NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox, said Laura Slater, spokeswoman for Nuvyyo, which makes the Tablo over-the-air DVR. This just isn't true. You need to get an over-the-air antenna (also called an off-air antenna), but it doesn't have to be fancy. Even those rabbit-ear contraptions from your childhood could work, though today's versions are typically much sleeker and can amplify signals to ensure you're getting as many channels as possible. (Mohu makes some popular thin ones.)

Simple.TV or Tablo

These take the local channels you're able to get and shoots them to your devices – your smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc. For a subscription fee, they also let you digitally record those channels so you're not stuck watching your network TV shows live like a schmuck. (Who does that anymore, anyway?) Another option: TiVo Roamio.

Slingbox

This is a streaming media product that shoots a cable signal over the Internet to a remote device. Slingbox is a brand, and there are other devices that do what it does. The generic term for that shooting signal is called "placeshifting." For people with cable, this is useful because you can watch "The Walking Dead" on your cellphone at work. For cord cutters, things get interesting: You can ask a cable-subscribing friend to let you sling his signal to your home TV and watch the zombies feast as well. It's legal because you can sling only one signal to one device.

Aereo

Whoopsie. You might have heard of this one, but it's been ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court. Like Simple.TV, Aereo captured all of those free over-the-air signals and let people record and watch them on a virtual DVR. Aereo says it simply replaced a local antenna with a cloud-based one, but broadcasters argued that the service was charging a monthly fee for content that it didn't own and was getting for free.

Premium services

These include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Redbox and Amazon Prime, to name a few. They all cost a subscription fee – less than $10 a month for each of the first three, while Amazon Prime is $99 a year. For TV fans, Netflix and Hulu Plus are often deemed necessities. Amazon Prime, iTunes and Google Play allow you to buy subscriptions to some shows that aren't on network channels (current seasons of the FX show "The Bridge," for example). Redbox is for games and movies.

Streaming media, or set-top, box

You can stream the premium services listed above on your phones and tablets, but to watch them old-school on a television set, you need either a set-top box or a smart TV. Smart TVs have many of the apps built in already, so you just activate your subscriptions and get started. The set-top boxes turn any TV into a smart TV. Deciding from among the many boxes can feel daunting, as they each have pros and cons. Among the most popular: Roku and Apple TV. (A new entry to the field is Amazon Fire TV.) Roku seems to have an edge over others in part because it has so many built-in entertainment channels – it touts more than 1,500 to Apple TV's 30-something – and its interface is generally praised as being very user-friendly. These devices typically cost about $100, which is a one-time fee. There's no ongoing subscription for Roku or Apple TV, but Amazon Fire TV is basically useless without Amazon Prime.

What about sports?

Sports coverage remains the biggest obstacle for the wannabe cord cutter. Take Major League Baseball: MLB offers an app called MLB.TV, so fans could theoretically pay $25 a month to watch games. But there's a catch: Home-team games are often blacked out for exclusivity reasons. So if you're a Reds fan, you can't watch any Reds games. This scenario plays out with every major sport. There aren't many legal ways around it, though if you dig deep enough you can find some lesser-known options. One example is HockeyStreams.com, a Dutch outfit that costs about $110 a year and doesn't black out local games. (NHL GameCenter LIVE costs about $160 and does impose blackouts.) Football fans have it the hardest because DirecTV makes standalone subscriptions to its NFL Sunday Ticket product available only to people who "live in a select apartment building, attend a select university, or live in select metro areas." And even those lucky enough to be able to subscribe still have to endure local blackouts.

More Workarounds

Here are some of the obstacles area cord cutters say they face:

• Spoilers. Some TV shows sell season passes but don't make them available until the next day or so, meaning your friends have seen an episode that you haven't yet. Says Dan Koabel, 32, of Anderson Township: "If it's a show that I really like, I will normally catch it online the same night, just a few hours late, so in-person spoilers the next day aren't normally a worry. But after a popular show like 'Game of Thrones' airs, you have to basically stay off the Internet until you're able to catch up."

• HBO. After sports, this is the biggest area of complaint for many. The premium channel has an app called HBO Go, but it requires a cable subscription to activate it. While Brittany Walker signs up for cable just long enough to watch the series, Koabel relies on friends who "are normally happy to share their account info so that I can catch up." He also admits he sometimes uses Google to find a less-than-legal source. "These methods are admittedly questionable," he says, "but you do what you have to do to get your fix. If HBO offered a standalone subscription method, I know that I, as well as many others, would happily sign up for online access."

• Learning new tricks. Seth Holt was amazed at how many tips were available through Reddit, which has at least two forums dedicated to cutting the cord. "I learned there are many avenues you can go down, whether it's with digital antennae or Apple TV or Roku," he says. "You can be as simple or as fancy as you want to get."

I had no idea that MTV still played videos. It's been years since I've even looked at the channel but when I did, I never saw any videos. I did enjoy watching it in the 80's though. Especially from 1981 through 1984. But I was also in high school back then.

To say that this wedding is unconventional doesn’t quite capture the essence of the nuptials of reality show contestants Ashley and Alika.

First off, the bride and groom met with the TV cameras rolling and decided to get hitched after just three months. Six other couples who are attending the wedding fell for each other under the same televised circumstances. A shaman presides over the ceremony, with backup from a chanting yogi and drum circle.

Nowhere in sight can one find the usual trappings—no flower girl, no ring bearer, no tulle or tuxedos.

Boutonnieres are also in short supply—though bug spray could come in handy. Some of the invited guests are more anxious than even the happy couple—who, even if they don’t get cold feet, may well experience sunburn.
For you see, everybody here—the bride and groom, wedding party and guests—is butt naked.

Even if you haven’t been tuning into VH1’s summer hit Dating Naked—which has attracted more than 1 million viewers per episode and plenty of social buzz to boot—you might want to cue the DVR for television’s first all-nude wedding, airing Sept. 18 at 9 p.m. To be sure, it’ll be a spectacle not to be missed.

For the Viacom-owned basic cable channel, it was a no-brainer to film the union and televise it as an hour-long special, extending the series’ 10-episode run with what are likely to be big ratings. Along the way, VH1 will make TV history—and no doubt incense the morals-and-family-values crowd.

The wedding “felt like a natural spinoff special,” says VH1 president Tom Calderone, who calls Dating Naked “the most honest dating show on TV.”

“Witnessing a naked wedding is funny and outrageous enough, but it shows what happens when the stakes are that high,” he adds. “These people have met and dated naked, and this is a success story.”

By all accounts, the bare-all union made for a joyous occasion, even if it was super awkward for the couple’s close friends and family members, who were forced to adhere to the clothing-not-optional rule along with the young, well-toned stars. “They looked confused, and they were definitely nervous,” says Dating Naked cast member Christina “Wee Wee” Porcelli, who met her boyfriend Joe Pappas on the show’s first episode. “Ashley’s grandmother wanted to come, but she just couldn’t wrap her head around the whole naked thing.”

VH1 isn’t the only network to feature people taking it all off in prime time. In fact, naked TV seems to be becoming a regular subgenre of reality programming, with the Discovery Channel’s adventure/survival series Naked and Afraid serving as the granddaddy of skin-baring fare.

Discovery’s sister channel TLC has found its own solid performer in Buying Naked, which follows nudist house hunters in Florida. GSN recently debuted Skin Wars, hosted by Rebecca Romijn, which pits body painters and their nearly naked models against each other in a weekly competition. The program, which delivered the channel’s second-highest original premiere ratings ever, comes on the heels of a documentary-style series on Syfy about a body-painting business called Naked Vegas.

And in a first for broadcast TV, Fox was developing a series featuring contestants dating in the buff in front of a live studio audience. That project was dumped amid a leadership change at the broadcaster. And there’s little wonder why. An insider says the pilot had “overtones of a live sex show.” Apparently, there is still a line that cannot be crossed.

Meanwhile, TV executives say they are getting a steady stream of pitches for naked reality shows, as Hollywood looks to ride the current wave of series that push the envelope by baring bare bums.

In some ways, such shows could be seen as mimicking their scripted counterparts that are sporting more sexually explicit storylines and revealing more skin and sex than ever before. Premium cable channels like Cinemax led the way, with HBO, Showtime and Starz catching up in (over)exposed flesh with series like Game of Thrones, Masters of Sex, Spartacus and Girls.

Basic cable has followed suit when it comes to the birthday suit with adult-themed dramas like Syfy’s Dominion, FX’s The Americans, USA’s Satisfaction and TNT’s Murder in the First featuring copious amounts of uncovered skin. Meanwhile, pixilation on network TV has never been so prevalent, according to conservative watchdog group the Parents Television Council, with blurred body parts in numerous shows airing as early as 8 p.m., formerly known as the family hour.

It seems only a matter of time, then, that unscripted shows would drop trou—especially considering that TV viewers have become accustomed to the production, control and spin involved in the typical reality show where high-drama events are staged, catfights are stoked, and situations are manipulated for maximum effect, says trendspotter Maude Standish.

It’s all left the audience searching for a deeper level of authenticity, she says—at the same time, noting that even in our oversharing society, people still carefully edit their public personas. “We know that who a person is on Instagram isn’t who they actually are,” says Standish, co-founder of Tarot, a millennial trend insights company. “We want to see real as real can be. If people are naked on a TV show, there’s nothing they can hide physically. That allows us to get as close as possible. We’re seeing a real person be her real self. I can identify with that. It’s extreme, and it’s interesting to watch.”

Critics like the PTC, on the other hand, call it gratuitous and shameful, while cable network executives take pains to defend their shows’ pixilated privates as essential to the storytelling. (Butts, it should be pointed out, are often fair game for the camera nowadays, with only genitals and breasts getting the digitally scrambled treatment.)

Calderone notes that the pitch for Dating Naked was appealingly simple and straightforward, even though he predicted that the logistics could be a nightmare. So much pixilation, he points out, needs to be “surgical.”

“At its core, it’s a very sweet, fun, silly dating show,” he adds of the series in which there seems to be less hooking up than on an average episode of ABC’s The Bachelor. “The conceit is that everyone’s naked, but after a few minutes you have to make sure the characters are fun and the level of romance and intrigue is there to make an incredible hour of programming,” Calderone says.

Dating Naked touts itself as a “radical social experiment,” though Calderone admits that neither Dr. Drew nor any other pop psychologist analyzes the contestants, their body language or their choices. Still, it breaks down barriers between the sexes, he contends, as the hot young things zipline, go horseback riding, dance and drink in the altogether. “You are truly exposed,” he says. “It brings up the issue of how you would act if you really had your guard down.”

It’s that stripped and vulnerable feeling for which the producers of Discovery’s Naked and Afraid also strive. The series, which will air original episodes through September, dumps two naked strangers, a man and woman, into a remote, exotic environment, each with a single tool, where they must survive for 21 days. Making fires, building shelter and finding water are among their priorities rather than enjoying “alone time,” as executive producer Jay Renfroe points out.

While it could have been Partially Clad and Afraid, the full-on nudity adds another entire layer of hardship, Renfroe explains.

“It’s not enough to take away their cellphones and makeup—we take everything away,” he says. “We all know that we’re reliant and used to the creature comforts of the modern world, and we’ve gone soft. But what if all that was gone? Would we have the skills to survive? Could we gut it out?”

The concept of Adam and Eve as the first survivalists came from executives at Discovery, according to Renfroe, and his production company, Renegade 83, ran with the idea. Having no clothes to shield the participants from the weather, bugs and predators was always an “organic” part of the equation, he adds.

Producers pair contestants according to their complementary skills, not according to whether they might make a love connection. As it happens, there hasn’t been a single romance to blossom among the castaways, meaning that viewers expecting to be titillated by sex in the brush have been sorely disappointed. (Huddling together to warm up doesn’t count.)

Best known for its traditional shiny-floor game shows, GSN wanted to latch onto the body painting rather than the naked TV trend with its Skin Wars. With a spike in public interest in the art form, executives at the network say they set out to “gameify” it with a challenge show, which quickly spawned a YouTube offshoot called Skin Wars: The Naked Truth.

The near-nakedness is an important element in creating the ultimate human canvas, notes GSN evp of programming Amy Introcaso-Davis—but it’s not meant to be lurid.

“There’s no attempt to deemphasize the sexiness of it, but it’s about the artistry and the skill, not the raciness,” she explains.

Nor was the proverbial peek inside the kimono the point of TLC’s Buying Naked, according to the channel’s executive vice president of development and production, Howard Lee. Instead, it was access to a little-known subculture—nudists on Florida’s Gulf Coast—that piqued the network’s interest and perfectly complemented its oddball series about Amish youngsters, polygamists, Southern rednecks and army-size families.

“We were not looking for a nude show,” says Lee. “And this isn’t about dating or finding love. It’s a small world that already exists, and we’re getting a deeper understanding of it.” The executive ordered the series after two ratings-winning half-hour specials centered around real estate agent to the naked Jackie Youngblood. Audiences have continued to tune in, and Lee says he’s heard little in the way of viewer complaints.

How much of a future does the showing-us-everything genre really have?

While certainly getting a lot of media attention and some interest among viewers, it bears mentioning that none of these naked-centric shows has hit the level of success of such basic cable phenomena as A&E’s Duck Dynasty and History’s Pawn Stars.

Meanwhile, the ever-vigilant PTC has these shows in its sights, predictably. The group’s president Tim Winter objects not only to the idea of naked TV—which he calls an attempt to “pander, shock and titillate”—but also to repeated airings at all hours, including daytime.

“You can see these shows morning, noon and night,” he complains. “And the networks have determined that they’re appropriate for kids as young as 14 with a TV-14 label. That’s outrageous to me.”

The PTC has used naked shows to intensify its lobbying efforts in Washington for á la carte cable, which would allow consumers to opt out of networks they consider objectionable or simply don’t want.

Continuing its well-worn path of following the dollar, the PTC is in talks with numerous advertisers whose commercials air during programs like Dating Naked.

Winter doesn’t take credit for the move but does get a measure of satisfaction from the fact that McDonald’s and Pepsi no longer sponsor Dating Naked. Meanwhile, marketers like Taco Bell, Domino’s, Clearasil and Lysol have remained loyal sponsors.

“If the ad dollars go away, so will the content,” Winter believes. “Anyway, it should be on a subscriber basis only—those who don’t want that programming don’t have to underwrite it. Let those 1 million people who watch these shows pay for them.”

Perhaps we should have seen this trend coming, as networks are forever pushing the envelope. Then, as Lisa Herdman, svp, director of national programming and branded entertainment at agency RPA, points out, a whole slate of programs with “naked” in their titles has cropped up in recent years—among them, Oxygen’s Naked Josh, BBC’s Naked Chef, TruTV’s Naked Office and ABC’s TV movie Naked Hotel—never mind that they didn’t actually feature nudity.

While nudity may be seen as a “quick fix” in the search for ratings, Herdman says, there is no shortage of advertisers lining up to support them. Such programming is brand specific, with edgier, younger-skewing sponsors being the most likely to bite. And yet, there are more conservative viewers and advertisers—and the good old PTC—with which to contend.

Standish sees such contradictions not only in the entertainment business but also in the broader society. There’s our ingrained prudishness on the one hand and the pornification of pop culture on the other.

“We’re starting to see people comfortable with certain levels of nudity—naked backs, cut-outs, sheer fabric, side boob,” she says. “We’re not wearing see-through plastic, but everything is so transparent we might as well show it all anyway. And yet there are still these deeply embedded conservative roots among the older population.

“Their kids, meanwhile, are sending naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends,” she adds. “That’s why all this is captivating our attention now.”

Critic's NotesTV's new microaudiences are shaking up the business
By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

The business end of show business is made up of numbers. It's a thing of charts and tallies, receipts and ratings. There are counters on everything nowadays, toting up the hits, keeping track of followers. In television, which I write about, there are the famous Nielsen ratings, by which series live and die and careers are made or made redundant.

Even as the measurements and mediums change — Nielsen now also publishes Twitter rankings for television — the figures do seem to tell a simple, raw story. As a guide to corporate investment or disinvestment, renewal or cancellation, they might be useful. From a viewer's perspective — and from a critic's — they don't matter at all.

Whether you are part of an audience of 1 million or of one, every transaction between artist and audience is roughly the same in its potential to be rewarding or disappointing. While it is nice to be part of some huge communal, contagious enthusiasm, whether it's World Cup Fever or Weird Al Mania, you are always in a deeper sense on your own.

Although there has always been a range of possibilities and venues within the arts — from community theater to Broadway, from art-house films to summer blockbusters, from the Cinema Bar to the Fabulous Forum — modern technology has brought entertainment more than ever into line with this existential state of affairs. We now live in the age of the microaudience.

I learned long ago, in the trenches of punk rock, that many things I love are doomed commercially from the start and many things that succeed are as nails on a chalkboard. There is nothing I can do about this except to praise, patronize and promote the art I know I like, to share what seems beautiful or hilarious to me. That is why, for instance, I have written twice about "King Douglas," a homemade cartoon series by teenager Wyatt O'Connell I came to by the usual way of clicking here and clicking there. The most-watched episode has been as of this writing "only" 1,570 times, as some would see it — and yet, 1,570 times!

Television was defined for many years by the products of three major broadcast networks. At the same time, outside of prime time, it was also highly regional — every broadcast station is locally operated, if not always locally owned — with programming that addressed local interests and a local audience. Just so, there was a time, before the mass media was as formatted and franchised as fast food, when a band with a Top 10 hit in Baltimore might have been entirely unknown in Chicago.

Now, even as the entertainment industry merges into fewer and fewer major players, we have entered a time of virtual regionalism, in which place is not defined geographically but by shared interest and aesthetic predilection, by the nodes of connection the Internet affords, and the kinds of communities it enables, as small as two like minds and as physically remote as half a world away.

Dozens and dozens of networks now produce original content, as broadcast and cable networks have been joined by streaming services connected to neither; add in independent posters to YouTube or Vimeo or Tumblr, whose ranks swell every day — and a small but significant fraction of whom are worth taking seriously — and the sum of what you could be watching becomes literally incomprehensible. You will never get your head around it.

Through these thickets of abundance, you make your own way, likely with a little help from your friends (actual friends, Internet "friends"), posting links on Twitter or Facebook, or even in actual conversation by a real water cooler. (Those things still exist, don't they? I don't get out much.) And it will be very much your own way; the days when half a nation might be watching the same TV show at the same time are gone. That is the argument for "à la carte cable": Most of what you pay for, you'll never watch; why not pay just for what you will?

Many complain about the dross Big Hollywood produces, the dreck that major networks air, the vacuity of big-time industrial pop music — products that require mass audiences to pay back their investment. And certainly there is a lot of money going to fund things that look like sure things that might, in some imagined ideal system resembling a rosy memory of the pre-"Star Wars"/"Jaws" 1970s, otherwise go to fund quirky, personal, downbeat works. But plenty of people like that stuff, which is why it gets made.

It is true that there are some kinds of movies you can't make for less than $100 million, just as music recorded with expensive equipment in a finely tuned, purpose-built studio will have a different sort of quality than something knocked off on a laptop in a bedroom. But different doesn't mean better, and it has often been the case that art made on limited means is what moves the culture forward, creates a new vernacular. (See: New Wave cinema, hip-hop music.) Experiment has always happened at the margins, where less money is at risk and a smaller audience required; that's how Fox first distinguished itself from CBS, NBC and ABC and how cable distinguished itself from broadcast and Web-based video distinguishes itself from both.

Indeed, when I think back to the shows that have meant the most to me or just felt especially exciting in the moment — "Freaks & Geeks," "Wonderfalls," "Food Party," "Bunheads," "Incredible Crew," "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" — many were not particularly successful or only as successful as they needed to be for their less demanding venues. These include recent Web-based enthusiasms "Danger 5," "Bravest Warriors," "Ghost Ghirls" and "The Future With Emily Heller."

"Pancake Mountain," now a feature of PBS Digital Studios, I first got into when it was a Washington, D.C.-based cable-access show available here only on DVD. Even a show like BBC America's "Doctor Who," a worldwide phenomenon, is a worldwide phenomenon among a particular audience; its American ratings are comparable to those of NBC's finally canceled "Community," whose audience was similarly devoted and narrowly defined.

Only 1,789 people donated money to fund Hal Hartley's next film, "Ned Rifle" (premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall), though between them — or I should say, "between us," as I am one of them — they managed to raise $395,292. This is slightly less than was raised last year to make the "Veronica Mars" movie (91,585 backers pledging $5,702,153) but enough to get it done on the terms Hartley set for himself. In this new economy, the shape of the work changes with the desire for the work the market will bear.

These are parlous times for creators. The digital connectedness that makes crowdfunding possible is also to no small extent what has made it necessary, devaluing content on the one hand (because there's so much of it around, seemingly for free) and making it easier to steal on the other. We have a bad habit of regarding art as a form of recess for the people who make it.

The economics of major-league TV mean that, apart from loss leaders and executive pet projects, low-performing programs will die young, as the age-old difficulties of making a living drive creative people in all branches of the arts toward real jobs in the straight world. Nevertheless, we live in a time of abundance. If the old model of television is predicated on postponing failure — anything less than the 100 episodes thought necessary for a syndicated future — in the new one, the multi-platform video world I think of as "the televisions," every new offering feels like a gift, wherever it might lead. Good gift, bad gift, that is for you to decide.

Does the fact that "Enlightened," Mike White and Laura Dern's HBO comedy about a spiritual half-awakening lasted only two seasons make it a flop? Or does the fact that 18 episodes of this beautiful show exist at all represent a triumph of the medium? White and Dern have their own, more complicated (and, I'm sure, more frustrated) answer, but from here, it's all gravy.

Nielsen Overnights (18-49)‘Big Brother’ surges to a season high
By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine - Aug. 25, 2013

CBS’s “Big Brother” continues to post strong ratings.

In fact, “Brother” bumped up to a season high last night.

The program posted a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, jumping 14 percent over last week.

That also led lead-out “Unforgettable” to a week-to-week improvement, rising 13 percent to a 0.9 at 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, on ABC, the season finale of “Rising Star” posted a 0.9 from 9 to 11 p.m., up 13 percent from last week as well.

“Star’s” lead-in, “Wipeout,” posted a 0.7 at 8 p.m., a new series low.

NBC finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 1.8 average overnight rating and a 6 share. CBS was second at 1.3/4, Univision third at 1.1/3, Fox fourth at 1.0/3, ABC fifth at 0.8/2 and Telemundo sixth at 0.4/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Forty-nine percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

Also, ratings for NBC’s NFL coverage are approximate as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data.

At 7 p.m. NBC and Fox tied for first, each with a 1.2 rating, NBC for “Dateline” and Fox for reruns of “American Dad” and “The Simpsons.” CBS was third with a 1.1 for “60 Minutes.” ABC and Univision tied for fourth at 0.7, ABC for “Wipeout” and Univision for “Aqui y Ahora,” and Telemundo was sixth with a 0.4 for the end of the movie “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.”

CBS took the lead at 8 p.m. with a 2.5 for “Brother,” followed by NBC with a 2.0 for “Sunday Night Football.” Univision was third with a 1.1 for “Que Pobres Tan Ricos,” Fox fourth with a 0.9 for repeats of “Simpsons” and “Bob’s Burgers,” ABC fifth with a 0.8 for more “Wipeout” and Telemundo sixth with a 0.3 for the movie “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

NBC moved to first at 9 p.m. with a 2.0 for football, with Univision second with a 1.3 for more “Que Pobres.” Fox was third with a 1.0 for reruns of “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers.” ABC and CBS tied for fourth at 0.9, ABC for “Rising Star” and CBS for “Unforgettable,” and Telemundo was sixth with a 0.4 for its movie.”

At 10 p.m. NBC was first again with a 1.7 for more football, followed again by Univision with a 1.2 for the end of “Que Pobres” and “Sal y Pimienta.” ABC was third with a 0.6 for a repeat of “Castle” and CBS and Telemundo tied for fourth at 0.5, CBS for “Reckless” and Telemundo for the end of its movie.

Among households, NBC finished first for the night with a 4.2 average overnight rating and a 7 share. CBS was second at 4.1/7, ABC third at 2.0/3, Fox fourth at 1.5/3, Univision fifth at 1.4/2 and Telemundo sixth at 0.4/1.

TV/Nielsen NotesStealing the spotlight at the EmmysEvery year there's a breakout show that grabs all the attention
By Louisa Ada Seltzer, Media Life Magazine - Aug. 25, 2013

Every year the Emmys crown a new it show that steals the buzz at the ceremony and for weeks beyond after racking up a bunch of wins.

The past few years, “Modern Family,” “Homeland” and “Breaking Bad” have come away as the it shows. When the ceremony takes place tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC, it could be “Orange is the New Black” receiving all the love.

The Netflix comedy received 12 Emmy nominations, leading all comedies.

Last week, during the Creative Arts Emmys, which include many of the technical categories that are not presented during the TV broadcast, “Orange” won three trophies.

Should “Black” win the ultimate prize, best comedy, it would become the first online-only program ever to take best comedy or best drama.

Fewer people may see those awards handed out than last year. NBC chose to air the Emmys on a Monday this year, rather than the traditional Sunday, because of conflicts with “Sunday Night Football.”

That will likely lead to lower viewership. Last year CBS broadcast the Emmys and enjoyed a huge lead-in from the NFL, which averaged 26.4 million total viewers in the hour before the ceremony began.

That won’t be the case this year, and so it’s likely NBC will draw much lower viewership than last year’s Emmys, which averaged 17.8 million total viewers.

With some new beginnings, a final goodbye and a shift in time, HBO‘s True Blood came to an end last night after seven seasons. On a night of NFL preseason football on NBC, the MTV Video Music Awards and the Season 1 finale of TNT’s The Last Ship, the 70-minute broadcast of the Anna Paquin-Stephen Moyer vampire drama drew 4 million viewers for its 9 PM airing. That’s steady with the 4.14 million that watched the Season 6 finale on August 18 last year, which also faced football. It is also even with the 4 million who watched the June 22 Season 7 debut of the drama created by Alan Ball based on Charlaine Harris’ books at 9 PM. That season debut ended up pulling in 5.8 million viewers across its four plays. The Season 6 ender had a total of 5 million viewers over all its plays in August 2013. Season 6 averaged 10.6 million viewers in gross audience across different platforms. Last night’s finale was seen by 4.5 million over all its plays for a season average of 9.4 million viewers.

Once HBO’s flagship drama until the rise of Game Of Thrones, the premium cable network announced last September that the series would come to an end with the final 10 episodes of Season 7. Last night’s TB finale helped push its recently renewed lead-out The Leftovers to a new viewership high of 1.9 million watching its initial 10 PM airing. Over on sister station Cinemax, the third episode of the Steven Soderbergh-directed The Knick saw the freshman series was up 15% from its debut viewership with 754,000 watching on August 22.

A little more than a year after he was cast as the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi debuted as the Time Lord on Saturday night in the series’ Season 8 premiere. (He was glimpsed in the closing seconds of November’s 50th anniversary special, this was Capaldi’s s first full-episode effort.) The 80-minute premiere, entitled “Deep Breath,” aired on BBC One from 7:50 PM UK time. The launch was seen by 6.79M viewers according to the overnights. That was worth a 32.5 share. Capaldi’s start lands as the series’ most-watched opener since 2010. The record opener of the modern Doctor Who series was 2005’s debut that starred Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor and drew 9.9M viewers. On the low end of the scale is 2012 with 6.4M. Capaldi’s turn as the 12th incarnation of the character has been well-received by critics in Britain who’ve called his performance “wise and thoughtful” and an “impeccable debut.” “Deep Breath” sees the Doctor arrive in Victorian London, where he finds a dinosaur rampant in the Thames and a spate of deadly spontaneous combustions. He’s joined by companion Clara (Jenna Coleman) on a terrifying mission into the heart of an alien conspiracy. Surprises abound. We’ll be back later with ratings for the BBC America premiere, which aired at 8 PM ET last night.

UPDATE: Looks like the new Doctor is very popular in the USA. The Season 8 debut of Doctor Who on BBC America pulled in a record 2.2M viewers on August 23. Also, the Saturday’s 8:15 PM debut of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor in the long-running Time Lord series drew slightly more than 1 million adults 25-54. That’s a big jump from the 1.56M total viewers and 723,000 in the demo who watched the Season 7 premiere back in September 2012 — a record at the time. When added together with the 796,000 total viewers and 352,000 among the 25-54s with the 10 PM series debut of Intruders, August 23 was the channel’s highest-rated Saturday night ever. That’s very Rule Britannia.

Now there's a special TiVo digital video recorder just for cord-cutters.

The new TiVo Roamio OTA (over-the-air) DVR records up to four local TV broadcasts at the same time. The $49.99 DVR, which will be rolling out in select Best Buy stores in mid-September, stores 75 hours of HD programming.

Already-available TiVo DVRs can record from an antenna and a pay TV service, but those start at $199.99. This new DVR is TiVo's lowest-priced product ever.

For now, TiVo plans to make the new OTA DVR available on a limited basis in select markets. The TiVo service, which provides a customizable program guide and incorporates services such as Netflix, requires a one-year commitment at $14.99 per month.

That service includes mobile apps that let you stream recordings within and outside your home when you add the TiVo Stream device (sold separately, $129.99).

The new Roamio "makes sure that (cord cutters) too can get a best in class DVR experience through an antenna, including our world renowned interface and industry defining recording capability at our most affordable price point ever," said TiVo chief marketing officer Ira Bahr in a statement.

The premium cable network is in the early stages of developing a prequel series based on the 2010 feature film Shutter Island, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Ashecliffe would take place at the isolated mental hospital depicted in the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer, with the potential TV series serving as a prequel to the movie and taking place before the events in the film. The drama would explore the hospital's past and misdeeds by its founders — a la FX's American Horror Story: Asylum.
As he did with the feature film, based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel, Martin Scorsese would direct the pilot — should the project move forward. Lehane would pen the script alongside Tom Bernardo for the HBO prequel.

The project continues HBO's relationship with Scorsese, who is prepping an untitled 1970s rock 'n' roll drama with his Boardwalk Empire cohort Terence Winter and Breaking Bad's George Mastras, to star Bobby Cannavale. Both projects come as the final season of Boardwalk Empire is set to unspool in September.

For Paramount TV, Ashercliffe comes as the division continues to mine the studio's film library. Par TV recently received a straight-to-series order at Nickelodeon for a live-action School of Rock adaptation. The studio, which returned to TV production with 2013's ill-fated Beverly Hills Cop CBS pilot, also is tapping into its feature library for small-screen takes on Ghost, Terminator and The Truman Show, among other original fare including Fox's live production of Grease.

For now, TiVo plans to make the new OTA DVR available on a limited basis in select markets. The TiVo service, which provides a customizable program guide and incorporates services such as Netflix, requires a one-year commitment at $14.99 per month.http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/p...-dvr/14557173/

Is it just me or does anyone else think TIVO is over valuing their subscription fees? It has kept me away since the beginning, it's just too much of a commitment for something I pretty well take for granted and with info that is so freely available, I get content with Netflix, Amazon and even Hulu, but I have a hard time paying more per month for just an access point.

Is it just me or does anyone else think TIVO is over valuing their subscription fees? It has kept me away since the beginning, it's just too much of a commitment for something I pretty well take for granted and with info that is so freely available, I get content with Netflix, Amazon and even Hulu, but I have a hard time paying more per month for just an access point.

I'm currently on a monthly rate and yes, I think it is expensive. Definitely more expensive than the 2 Lifetimes I sold. But supposedly it's more than just the guide data, it's the constant improvement in the device and in the software that runs on the device along with the associated mobile features, etc. You're paying for more than just guide data. But yeah, I think it's still a little high, it used to be only $6.99 if I recall correctly.

I do think an OTA-only model should be less than the $14.95 per month being charged for the cable/OTA models though.

Now there's a special TiVo digital video recorder just for cord-cutters.

The new TiVo Roamio OTA (over-the-air) DVR records up to four local TV broadcasts at the same time. The $49.99 DVR, which will be rolling out in select Best Buy stores in mid-September, stores 75 hours of HD programming.

Already-available TiVo DVRs can record from an antenna and a pay TV service, but those start at $199.99. This new DVR is TiVo's lowest-priced product ever.

For now, TiVo plans to make the new OTA DVR available on a limited basis in select markets. The TiVo service, which provides a customizable program guide and incorporates services such as Netflix, requires a one-year commitment at $14.99 per month.

That service includes mobile apps that let you stream recordings within and outside your home when you add the TiVo Stream device (sold separately, $129.99).

The new Roamio "makes sure that (cord cutters) too can get a best in class DVR experience through an antenna, including our world renowned interface and industry defining recording capability at our most affordable price point ever," said TiVo chief marketing officer Ira Bahr in a statement.

And no lifetime option. So you are stuck paying high monthly fees for the TiVo. I got a Roamio BAsic for OTA last year for only $175 and was able to transfer my $6.95 a month rate(from my Premiere. WHich previously transferred from my TiVoHD). WHich is low enough that I don't mind paying it indefinitely. But all of my other TiVos have lifetime service.